“Experiential Learning for Holistic School Education As Envisaged in NEP 2020”

Abstract

The fourth goal of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations is to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’. The global education development agenda reflected in SDG 4 was adopted by India in 2015. India is committed to creating equitable and universal access to quality education at all levels, for the physical, mental and social well-being of her people. The Indian education system needs to be revamped in order to fulfill the goals and targets of the 2030 ‘Agenda for Sustainable Development’.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was formulated in the context of the challenges presented by the volatile world we live in. As the first policy for education in India in the 21^st century, NEP 2020 proposes aligning the education system to bring it in harmony with the goals of modern education, including SDG 4.

The knowledge and communication explosion in the last few decades combined with breathtaking advances in technology such as growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data, have utterly transformed what students need to learn and the way  they are expected to learn.

Rather than content mastery based on rote learning, students now need to know ‘how to learn’ and extrapolate those learning skills to meet the demands of higher education and the job market. NEP 2020 emphasises that holistic education is needed wherein children learn reading, writing, numeracy, develop critical thinking and problem solving, and simultaneously develop their social, emotional and spiritual intelligence and dispositions. The researchers propose to analyse the NEP 2020 policy document to shed light on whether Experiential Learning would help in integrated learning to ensure the holistic education of learners as envisaged in NEP 2020.